Fabrice Muamba: Blackburn happy to postpone Bolton game after collapse
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After Fabrice Muamba's cardiac arrest, Blackburn say they are happy to postpone their match against Bolton. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/PA |
The Bolton midfielder is in a critical condition in the London chest hospital after collapsing on the pitch and the side's Premier League match at Aston Villa on Tuesday night has already been postponed. Kean said Rovers would be guided by their Lancashire rivals in terms of Saturday's game at the Reebok Stadium.
"I think the whole footballing world has come together," said Kean. "Whatever we have to do we would only respect what Bolton want us to do next weekend.
"We hope he makes a full recovery but if they need a little bit more time and the game doesn't go ahead then we would respect that from Bolton's point of view."
Kean added: "Everyone is taking advice from the hospital and experts in that we are hoping for progress in 24/48 hours and I know we are getting close to that point.
"We will respect everything that has to be done to facilitate a full recovery not only for Fabrice but his team-mates who could quite possibly be in a difficult position.
"We will get in communication [with Bolton]. I am sure our directors will speak with theirs and I will speak to Owen [Coyle] myself later. We will communicate today and do the right thing."
Kean said: "It is a thing that hits everyone between the eyes because you look at a young man as fit as he is and the way he plays – he is full of energy, you would think he is just a machine and he is going to keep going. All of a sudden from nowhere he is in a position where he is critically ill in hospital.
"He is in very good hands. He has the best consultants and surgeons looking after him and everyone is hopeful. We are waiting for positive news that comes and our thoughts are with him and his family at this moment."
Blackburn have had their own experience of player heart problems this season as Gaël Givet was taken ill in a match at Sunderland, coincidentally the club's opponents tomorrow, in December.
"Gaël got to a level at which he couldn't regulate his heart and it was racing at a ridiculous level and if we didn't get him off the pitch he could have had a cardiac arrest," said the Rovers manager. "We managed to get him off and soon after that he had a procedure which used some lasers to severe some nerve endings which just regulated his heart.
"It didn't sound too straightforward to me but according to the doctor it was. He has made a full recovery and we were fortunate we were able to have the medical information on the side [of the pitch] that managed to get Gaël off and never put him in that position."
Kean said clubs had stringent medical tests in place already, but suggested the procedure may have to be looked at in light of what has happened to the 23-year-old Muamba.
"Players get a full medical. They go through a screening process which involves MRI scans and examinations to the nth degree, so I don't know now if there will be a full angiogram put in and people look at the heart in much more detail.
"From our point of view our medical staff pride themselves on having one of the best screening processes in the world and speaking to our doctor we probably wouldn't have picked it up either.
"Maybe we have to go a little bit more detailed or maybe you can't ever get to know that something like this will happen no matter how much medical screening you do."
